pittsoccer33 wrote:I don't want to say I'm bitter about it, but I got zero help, outside a small scholarship and the money my grandmother would give me for books.

My wife (and probably most people) are in the same boat as you. It is 10 years later and we are still paying her loan off (although because it's low interest and now low principle, we pay the minimum and focus paying on our mortgage down at a faster rate). We have another two years.

But it's tough when you jump into the real world with a ton of debt.

I thank my parents all the time for what they did and I want to do that for my children.

in retrospect, i mightve gone to tech school. to me college was career training, not higher education. i like my job in finance but its a lousy time to be in my field of it. frank dodd is really harming our departments ability to grow our business.

i still kick around the idea of going to tech school and becoming cedia certified. the guy that hangs an 83" plasma on the wall and hooks it up to the home server, thermostat, security system, lighting, etc is probably cedia certified.

I disagree. I think too many people are college material. It's not difficult to get in and it's not difficult to graduate. A college degree doesn't mean a whole lot in my eyes considering how easy it is to get one. I went to a good, private university and graduated with a bunch of turds. It should be more elite, but it's bad business to make something more exclusive.

I disagree. I think too many people are college material. It's not difficult to get in and it's not difficult to graduate. A college degree doesn't mean a whole lot in my eyes considering how easy it is to get one. I went to a good, private university and graduated with a bunch of turds. It should be more elite, but it's bad business to make something more exclusive.

Too many people does not = everyone.

That said, I do agree with you notion that a college degree no longer carries the weight it used to, mainly for the reasons you stated.

College today (and probably for the past decade or so) is pretty much a glorified high school IMO. Back when my parents went to college (in the 70s), a college degree carried a lot of weight and anything more than that was HUGE. Today, a ton of people have a college degree, so employers are looking for the next step, a graduate degree or a professional license.

And even those are probably losing some value because more and more people are getting those, so it probably now takes a combination of additional degrees/professional certifications to get ahead.

mac5155 wrote:For an entry level job at my company the desired qualification is an MBA. For entry level.

That's how it is at mine now. Or you have to be pursuing it, or have a professional certification like a CPA license. Also, unless you are an experienced hire, you pretty much have no shot unless you went through their intern program.

mac5155 wrote:For an entry level job at my company the desired qualification is an MBA. For entry level.

That's how it is at mine now. Or you have to be pursuing it, or have a professional certification like a CPA license. Also, unless you are an experienced hire, you pretty much have no shot unless you went through their intern program.

Luckily I went through the intern program here but am also pursuing an MBA.

I don't make nearly what someone with an MBA should make. That's why I think it's laughable. They say entry level, but the only thing entry level about the job is the pay.

mac5155 wrote:For an entry level job at my company the desired qualification is an MBA. For entry level.

That's how it is at mine now. Or you have to be pursuing it, or have a professional certification like a CPA license. Also, unless you are an experienced hire, you pretty much have no shot unless you went through their intern program.

Luckily I went through the intern program here but am also pursuing an MBA.

I don't make nearly what someone with an MBA should make. That's why I think it's laughable. They say entry level, but the only thing entry level about the job is the pay.

It does suck, but get the experience, get your MBA, and in a few years, it should all be worth it.

be honest. aside from it being a prerequisite for some jobs, is getting an MBA really that meaningful? do you feel like you've really been enriched with useful knowledge? i have a BBA (with an information systems degree), and the business classes i took (management, specifically) were generally a waste of time.

shmenguin wrote:be honest. aside from it being a prerequisite for some jobs, is getting an MBA really that meaningful? do you feel like you've really been enriched with useful knowledge? i have a BBA (with an information systems degree), and the business classes i took (management, specifically) were generally a waste of time.

I think in an employer's eyes, yeah. if you want to be in a management position here you almost have to have one.

I put in about 1/4 of the work on my MBA that i did towards my BS in Info Systems though.

shmenguin wrote:be honest. aside from it being a prerequisite for some jobs, is getting an MBA really that meaningful? do you feel like you've really been enriched with useful knowledge? i have a BBA (with an information systems degree), and the business classes i took (management, specifically) were generally a waste of time.

I'll be honest. Some of what I learn in a textbook I apply to my job, but 90% of what I know is from on the job experience.

In order to pass my CPA exam, (I dont' have an MBA), I had to study the crap out of a ton of accounting, law, tax, auditing, etc information, take the exam and pass it. Out of all the stuff I studied for, I use probably 10% of it on a regular basis, and honestly, if I had to take that exam again today, I'd fail.

I do think there is some benefit, but I think it is more of an excercise by the company to weed out people that do not want to take the extra step.

shmenguin wrote:be honest. aside from it being a prerequisite for some jobs, is getting an MBA really that meaningful? do you feel like you've really been enriched with useful knowledge? i have a BBA (with an information systems degree), and the business classes i took (management, specifically) were generally a waste of time.

if you want to be a masterbusinessman, you have to put in the hours working, not by dropping 40k to listen to some blowhard yammer about economies of scale

I think employers share some "blame." I put it in quotations because I don't really blame them, but I think one's college or professional says little about their qualifications. This goes to your point about MBAs. In other words, smart employers could get a real edge by developing better hiring procedures that sniff out qualified college (or high school) graduates instead of using degrees and certifications as erroneous proxies. These employers would succeed by finding better qualified individuals that they could likely pay less because other employers are just following the paper.

I love the "promotes financial responsibility" bs; doublespeak at its best. Instead of vote buying by passing such laws why don't we allow politicians to buy people's votes on Ebay? Of course they're bribing people with taxpayer money but they can always print more.At some point in time tarring and feathering should come back into vogue.

Geezer wrote:I love the "promotes financial responsibility" bs; doublespeak at its best. Instead of vote buying by passing such laws why don't we allow politicians to buy people's votes on Ebay? Of course they're bribing people with taxpayer money but they can always print more.At some point in time tarring and feathering should come back into vogue.